Peshawar High Court stays APTMA election 2017-18

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday stayed the election process of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) for the year 2017-18.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Ijaz Anwar issued the stay order in a writ petition filed by Ahmad Kuli Khan Khattak of Rehman Cotton Mills Limited, a candidate from APTMA Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Zone on the reserve seat for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the Central Executive Committee of APTMA.

The petitioner has made the Director General Trade Organizations (DGTO), Secretary General , APTMA, Election Commission of APTMA, APTMA KP Zone and Shehzad Ayub, a candidate for the top slot of APTMA, as respondents.

During hearing, Barrister Syed Mudassir Ameer, counsel for the petitioner, submitted before the bench that a candidate Shahzad Ayub, a defaulter of the annual subscription fee, submitted his nomination forms at Punjab office in violation of the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the APTMA.

He informed the court that the closure of his mills Zainab Textile Mills Limited for the last three years and the machineries installed in his mills had already been sold and shifted from the premises. He said the SNGPL had already disconnected the gas supply to the Zainab Textile Mills Limited. 

The counsel for the petitioner also argued that Punjab Zone of APTMA had also violated the Memorandum and Articles of Association and as well as Trade Organizations Rules 2013 by creating two additional polling stations at Multan and Faisalabad, wherein the number of registered voters is less than the mandatory 50 members just one day before the election.

He argued that the central chairman of APTMA was elected on rotation basis of 3:2:1 formula (three terms for Punjab, two for Sindh Balochistan and one for KP) and this year the term is of KP region.